INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES AND THE READING
It was a day that would live in infamy. Not September 11th, 2001 or December 7th, 1941, but Summer of AD 64: The Great Fire of Rome. If you were alive during that time, it would have had the sort of shock value that we all experienced in our own national tragedy. Before then, Christian was growing, but thought of as another religious dish in the Empire Cafeteria of ideas. The fire changed everything. It was blamed on the spread of this sect called The Way, those followers of the Nazarene. It was then that things got real serious about Christianity. True Faith had to be defined like never before. Who was this Jesus and what does He ask of His followers? What does it mean to be a follower of His?
In the midst of that crisis, God answered the cry with His Word. As the great Markan scholar William Lane wrote, "[The Gospel of Mark] was called forth by a crisis confronting the Christian community." Thus, we in our nation and in our congregation do well to re-focus in our generation, in these days of national crisis, on Mark’s Gospel.
In Mark 10.45, we have what I believe to be the central passage in the book:
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." Mark 10.45 (NRSV)
This shows Jesus as Our Savior, Our Servant, and Our Sacrifice. He is the Lord of History and how we need to see Him and know Him and experience Him today.
My wife often gives me help on illustrations. Knowing my concern this week, she told me about a conference of clergymen she read about in the newspaper. There was apparently a gathering of various religious leaders representing major and minor religions of the world. They gathered to talk about their common themes. Of course, there was a Christian clergyman there. But the bottom line of the article seemed to imply that they are really just all the same. In many ways, Jesus Christ is being placed alongside the other gods of this world, the other religions, as if the Nazarene is simply a religious teacher or founder of a society, as if He is just One Way among many. But, in the name of tolerance and broadmindedness, Christianity in our pluralistic society and in our often wayfaring hearts can never be allowed to devolve into just another religion. Our faith is in the Lord of Life, who died for our sins and who rose again. There is no other name under heaven whereby men may be saved. His uniqueness is His beauty and is the attractive feature to men and women who are tired of trying to please God with ritual and rigorous duties. Anything that hides His uniqueness, His glory, His beauty, His grace and His love is like old varnish that must be periodically scraped away!
The divine turpentine to do the job is the Gospel of Mark. Indeed, in the very first verse (which is really the Introduction to the whole Book), we come face to face with the distinctive features of our Lord. Mark identifies Him right away. He uses no genealogy like Matthew and Luke. He goes right to the jugular. You’re going to have to deal with the claims of Jesus in the very first verse.
So, I read, this morning, only the Introductory words to the Book. But, I remind you: this is the inerrant and infallible Word of the Living God.
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark 1.1 (NIV)
Let us pray.
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your Name. (Ps. 86.11) In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
A lady of society was gazing upon an image she had never seen before in the city’s art museum. "My dear fellow," she said condescendingly to the Curator, "I have never seen this painting before. I find the image shallow and rather crude in appearance. What do you call this?" The curator answered without giving the slightest expression," That madam, is a mirror." The lady’s vision was not very focused.
Losing focus on the Jesus of Scripture blurs our own view—not only of Christ—but of ourselves, as well. The Bible is also a great mirror. We may go to it to observe its content with a critical eye, but in the end, we are under its criticism.
We can not only lose focus, but lose our fire.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army said, "Look well to the fire in your own souls, for the tendency of the fire is to go out."
In days like these, each of us needs not only to refocus but to re-fire our faith in the Jesus of Scripture. Because of trendy pluralism, and our own tendency to making Jesus into a manageable deity, there to meet our every desire, we lose focus. Because we get so busy, so caught up in the things of this world, we also lose our fire for the Lord. Days of tragedy and times of trials surely cause us to return to the Lord. But our emotions mustn’t be left to wander. They must be fixed on the Person of Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures.
Enter Mark.. The Gospel of Mark was written sometime after the fire of Rome in 64 AD and before the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Writing to Christians in Rome, living in the midst of trial, seeking to know the truth of their faith, Mark moves quickly to get to the point of the true identity of Jesus. John Mark, writing under the ministry of Peter according to the early church historian Eusebius, reminds one of a master impressionistic painter. He uses a limited palate of bright, primary colors and makes quick, sharp strokes of his brush on the canvas of Scripture. What emerges is a magnificent portrait of Jesus our Lord, a man who is at once Our Savior, Our Servant, and Our Sacrifice.
How we need to fix our eyes on Him. How we need to just take in what Mark has to tell us.
According to Mark chapter 1, verse one, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth is distinctively different than any other Person or Religious Figure.
There are four "key words" in Mark 1.1 which help us to fix our eyes on this distinctively different Savior:
The first "key word" is: "BEGINNING"—in the Greek, arche. This word helps us to see that…
I. JESUS IS DISTINCTIVE IN THAT HE IS A PART OF HUMAN HISTORY, NOT A RELIGIOUS ICON APART FROM IT.
Mark wanted Christians to know that their Christianity rests not on a fable, but on the historical person of Jesus Christ. This is the very first forceful message of Mark. There is a beginning to the Greatest Story ever told.
The force of this is to say that Jesus lived in time and space. He was and is fully God, but He was and is fully Human. Losing focus on the one denies His divinity and power to save. Losing focus on the other can make Jesus into just another religious figure. But Jesus of Nazareth and His story had a beginning. The Second Person of the Triune Godhead was always and forever, but in first century Palestine, in a remote village, in the City of David, God came down, clothed Himself in flesh and lived among us. He who had no beginning, who is the Alpha and Omega also had a beginning. This has enormous impact on the soul of our lost generation.
Someone has written:
"How I wish that there was a wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again, where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all our poor selfish grief could be dropped like a shabby old coast at the door and never put on again."
The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not only an introduction to the Book of Mark, but for those who fall before the Nazarene, it is The Land of Beginning Again. It is an Invitation to remove your shabby, painful past and put on the pure white righteousness of Jesus. He whose Story began in the heart of a loving God, began in an announcement in Eden of a Redeemer to come, began on Mount Mariah with the Promise of a Lamb that God Himself would provide, comes to each of us today. One old preacher told me, "Son, preach Christ to broken hearts and you will never lack for a congregation." My beloved, I want nothing more than to exalt Jesus and present Him who long for a new life as the only Way to enter the Land of Beginning Again. Some of you need right now to cry out to Jesus in your heart and let Him lead you into the life you only dreamed could be yours.
But that is only the first word. The second Key Word is: "GOSPEL"—the Greek root word is Evangel in the original. . This word helps us to see that…
II. JESUS IS DISTINCTIVE IN THAT HE BRINGS GOOD NEWS, NOT DEMANDS RELIGIOUS WORKS
The Gospel was a word not unknown to the Roman and Greek world. But it was usually associated with the Good News announcement of an emperor or king as to what he would do for his subjects. What was new to their ears was a Gospel from God Himself!
We tend to understand religion as something we do, some devotion we have, some set or rules or regulations we follow. In religion, there is a deity who demands good works of one kind of another, but here is a King who declares. In religion there are rules to keep, but the good news is that He has kept them for us and our salvation comes totally from Him. This is the covenant, the promise, the hope, the very Gospel of God, that he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. The Gospel shouts to mankind:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph. 2.9 (NRSV)
True Christianity then stands apart from pseudo-Christianity and from every other religious group on this very point. The Gospel is God’s announcement to man, not man’s idea about God.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher of the twentieth century, wrote this:
"How do you know whether a man is a Christian? The answer is that his mouth is shut…People need to have their mouths shut, ‘stopped.’ They are forever talking about God, and criticizing God, and pontificating about what God should or should not do, and asking, ‘Why does God allow this or that?’ You do not begin to be a Christian until your mouth is shut, is stopped, and you are speechless and have nothing to say.’"
You see the Gospel has said it all. We have a King. He has spoken. And the word is that those who see their poverty of soul, who mourn over their sinful condition, who long for freedom from sin, have a Savior in Jesus Christ. Thank God that Gospel is still being announced today. Thank God that Gospel can yet save and renew anyone who calls upon Jesus Christ. It may be that some of you need to do that today. Don’t wait. Confess your sins and fall on the Promise of the Servant-King and you will be freed into a life of joy, a life of freedom, and an eternal life to come.
I draw your attention to the third Key Word is: "CHRIST"—from the root word Christos in the original. . This word helps us to see that…
III. JESUS IS DISTINCTIVE IN THAT HE IS THE DIVINE MESSIAH FOR ULTIMATE HUMAN SALVATION, NOT MERELY POLILTICAL LIBERATION
Mark makes it plain right up front. Jesus is the Christ. Christos meaning "the Anointed One." This was the long awaited Messiah of Israel. But any careful study of the Word of God in the Old Testament would lead you to see that God had plans beyond the Jewish nation. Yes, they were the chosen people to bring forth Messiah, but as Isaiah recorded:
he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Is. 49.6 (NRSV)
Many of the Jews missed that, of course. They were disappointed when Jesus withdrew from the fight against Rome and instead spoke of a liberation from sin and evil. But, of course, this offers the greatest freedom. Many men have been free from political enslavement only to continue to be slaves to sin. Jesus came to change a man from the inside out. Change the man and the man will change his ways and his world. That is the beginning of true freedom.
But, of course, this is the scandal of Jesus. He comes not as we want Him to be, but as we need Him to be.
As Mark wrote to these Roman Christians, there was no issue of Jesus being just for the Jews. No, the issue then was what we face today: of making the Christ into what we want; of taming the wildness of grace; of domesticating the radical call to discipleship; of institutionalizing the glory of His Person.
The PCA musician Michael Card wrote about this when he wrote a song using the Greek word Scandalon as the title:
"Along the path of life there lies this stubborn Scandalon And all who come this way must be offended. To some He is a barrier; to others He’s the way, For all should know the scandal of believing."
The scandal of believing is yielding your life to the Christ of Scriptures, not a god of your own making. The scandal is that nothing you can do counts. He has done it all. The scandal is that we are most healed, not when we do religious devotions, but when we let go of our pride and fall down and take hold of the hem of His garment. The scandal of our faith is that our Messiah, our Christ is a Savior who comes and makes His home not among the smug self-righteous, but among ragamuffins, lepers, poor, blind, lame, captives, demon possessed, and brokenhearted and transforms them into sons and daughters of the Most High.
Finally, consider the amazing words, "THE SON OF GOD"—which teaches us that…
IV. JESUS IS DISTINCTIVE IN THAT HE IS ALMIGHTY GOD, NOT JUST ANOTHER RELIGIOUS LEADER
J.B. Phillips, a late translator of Scriptures, wrote:
"The trouble with many people today is that they have not found a God big enough…"
Mark gives us a God who is "big enough." He left heaven and became like the people He wanted to save. We have seen that the Gospel has a beginning. Jesus of Nazareth had a beginning in Bethlehem on that wondrous night when the angels sang our their Gloria to common shepherds. But, He who had a beginning also is said to be the Alpha and Omega. Jesus is the Son of God. The phrase means what it says. The Nicene Creed helped to formulate what Scripture here and elsewhere teaches: that Jesus is
"…begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, not made, being of one substance with the Father…"
I grew up in the church, heard the Gospel, was reared by a dear woman that loved the Lord and loved me and taught me the Scriptures at an early age, but still I grew up and missed this central truth in my heart of hearts: Jesus is God! I tell you that when I heard D. James Kennedy declare at a conference that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Almighty God, the Everlasting Creator, I shook with fear and with amazement. I still am in awe when I think that God walked this earth. I will never get over the words, "Jesus is God." They are filled with a wonder which my heart longs for.
While on his deathbed, Abraham Joshua Heschel, a noted Jewish theologian, spoke these words:
"…never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and He gave it to me." I would like to have told that brilliant theologian: "No. No, Rabbi Heschel. You have not really known wonder until you come to see and fall before and worship the Son of God, who loved us and washed us from our sins."
He is not just another religious leader. He never claimed that. In Mark, we shall encounter Jesus as He heals, raises the dead, claims to be God, is crucified for it and rises again from the dead and seen by others. He is the Son of God, God come to Man out of love, and that is a wonder that has set drug addicts free, has made prisoners to be free even when facing execution, has inspired artists and musicians, and changed the heart of this poor preacher.
We preach Jesus, the Son of God. It may just be the truth that sets you free this morning.
CONCLUSION
This is Mark’s message to Christians and an Empire in need of clarity. The Gospel is a story with a beginning, it happened in time; The Gospel is God’s Good News to those who are broken and desiring healing; Christ is the Anointed One, a Messiah unlike any you ever imagined, and He is God. What a message for a generation awash in the murky water of pluralism.
Some of you might have heard of the late Malcolm Muggeridge. He was a British journalist and a noted atheist for many years of his life. But in his sin, in the very midst of about to commit yet another vile act of wickedness, he came face to face with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He repented and turned to Christ. At the end of his life, Muggeridge said:
"All I have cared about is the living presence of Christ; the life He lived, and the death He died; and the unique salvation He offers to a distracted world today."
That is what we must care about too as believers. We cherish and preach Jesus Christ as the unique way, truth and the life. He stands apart from all others. He is the "wholly other" whose distinctive difference must be lifted up. For it is only in His unalloyed glory, that men will be drawn to Him. No words of Luther or Whitefield or Billy Graham have ever adequately described his love, no painting of Michelangelo or Rembrandt has ever shown His true radiance and beauty, no music of Bach or Mendelson or Handel has ever captured the feeling of the human heart when it is captured by His grace. But, wonder of wonders, God in His Word working with His Spirit takes the power of this one little verse and can move mountains, save marriages, heal nations, comfort bereaving, and turn an exceedingly sinful and wretched sinner like me into a follower of Jesus Christ.
Ladies and Gentlemen: I present to you Jesus. O that the beginning of this Gospel story would be your beginning or maybe new beginning, as well.
Let us pray.
* * *
While every head is bowed and every eye closed, I invite you to open up your heart this morning to the possibility that Jesus Christ is knocking on the very door of your heart. For some, Christ calls you to come and die. Die to yourself. Give up your pride and follow Him as your living Lord and Savior. For others, He may be inviting you to leave your religion of works, and duty, and show, and make way for a radical grace. For all of us, He bids us to turn our eyes upon Him: the Christ whose love is greater, whose grace is more abundant, whose offer of new life is more full than we ever imagined.
Lord, heal our eyes so that we see You as You intended in Your Word. And in seeing, help us to believe. In believing, help us to follow. In following, help us to never take our eyes off of You. Amen.
